Glacial Download Speeds

[Nickompoop]

I play games on my PC, so, naturally I use Steam. However I've run into a bit of a problem. Whenever I download something, be it a new game, DLC, or an update, Steam shows my download speed to be incredibly slow. I'm lucky to hit 1MB/S and it usually levels out to 50-100 KB/S. However, it fluctuates wildly, hitting 1.5 MB/S or going down to 10 Bytes/S (no, I'm not kidding. that happened today) within 30 seconds. We have Comcast and we subscribe to a 16 MB/S download speed. I'm running off of 802.11g Wi-Fi, Vista, and a 150Mbps USB 2.0 adapter with a hi-gain antennae.

I have no idea what's causing the slow speeds and it only happens when I download something. Web pages show up as fast as they're supposed to.

[djlowe]

Originally Posted by Nickompoop

I play games on my PC, so, naturally I use Steam. However I've run into a bit of a problem. Whenever I download something, be it a new game, DLC, or an update, Steam shows my download speed to be incredibly slow. I'm lucky to hit 1MB/S and it usually levels out to 50-100 KB/S. However, it fluctuates wildly, hitting 1.5 MB/S or going down to 10 Bytes/S (no, I'm not kidding. that happened today) within 30 seconds. We have Comcast and we subscribe to a 16 MB/S download speed. I'm running off of 802.11g Wi-Fi, Vista, and a 150Mbps USB 2.0 adapter with a hi-gain antennae.

I have no idea what's causing the slow speeds and it only happens when I download something. Web pages show up as fast as they're supposed to.

Hi,

The most likely explanation is that Comcast is throttling/shaping the bandwidth use in your service area, and giving priority to Web traffic, and lowering/throttling the bandwidth otherwise, which explains why your Steam and DLC downloads are slow, but Web browsing is not.

You can test whether or not this is the case by running the Glasnost test at: http://www.measurementlab.net/measurement-lab-tools

Regards,

dj

[Nickompoop]

I ran three of the tests and none of them said that my uploads were being throttled, but the downloads were too noisy to measure any throttling. What would cause such noise and how can I reduce it to get an accurate measurement?

[satrow]

I'd connect via ethernet cable direct to the router (and turn off wireless on the router) to test, it'll rule out any wireless interference and piggy-back connections.